In the 1978 book by the Russian Scientist Dr. Dubrov, he mentions a new scientific discipline which he names as Astrobiology. NASA has used the term to relate to extra-terrestrial science since the late 1950s. This field of endeavor investigates the effects of the Sun and Planetary Configurations upon all life on this Earth. Dr. Dubrov also cites the basis for direct coupling of organic life to the fluctuations of energy fields and relationships of the Solar System to the hereditary material of life DNA. He shows that many types of electromagnetic and geomagnetic field components are sensed by living entities. He goes on to show how living entities are extremely sensitive to changes in whatever particular aspect of the energy spectrum to which they are tuned and resonate with. He cites much work that has been done by reputable scientists from all over the world to support his claim. He also paints a glowing picture of the future work to be done in this new field of science.

Much of the work Dr. Dudrov cites was done in the former Soviet Union. Work in the western world has also been conducted. Two very excellent works are to be read and understood in order to establish a background for understanding Astrobiology. See Winkless & Browning and Playfair & Hill in the bibliography. These are important books, do not let their ages deter you. They are well researched and list numerous articles in the scientific literature dealing with the subject of environmental influences upon life. In a nutshell, these three books give overwhelming evidence for those factors which directly cause the fluctuations in our environment here on Earth which affect all organic life.

The ability to function in one's environment successfully is a prerequisite for the continuation of life. Successfully means in order to reproduce and assist one's offspring in reaching self-sufficiency. This is true for all organic life and the diversity of microbes, plants and animals demonstrates the almost bewildering array of strategies employed. Organic evolution took place within the context of the greater scope of the evolution of our Solar System. Since one of the tenets of Biological Science is that all organic life responds to the influences of the environment, the means organic life uses in order to maintain itself must also evolve with the Solar System and it's cycles. The diversity of organic life responds to the changes in the environment and employs stratagems depending upon the evolutionary complexity of any particular species. Differences are by in large a matter of scale.

Light Matter, whether it is organic or inorganic, is composed of the same basic constituents as protons, neutrons and electrons. As such, the protons, neutrons and electrons which go to make up all Light Matter are subject to the laws of physics as discerned and categorized by man. Thus, any influence upon Light Matter by other Light Matter and the interactions of matter which result in the change of circumstances in the relationships of matter, will affect both inorganic and organic Light Matter equally. However, organic matter has in addition to the ordinary relationships of physics and chemistry a special property which allows for the accumulation of, for lack of a better term, life energy. Yes, an accumulation which flies in the face of the second law of thermodynamics as we as yet understand it. This energy and the causes as to why living entities are able to do this astounding thing has not been adequately characterized by anyone to my knowledge at this time. Living organisms store energy in the form of high energy chemical bonds of adenosine-di and tri-phosphate as well as low chemical bonds of carbohydrates and fats. Being alive and what is aliveness still has to be adequately characterized as well. In any case, the energy and field relationships of our material universe affects all Light Matter. From this point on, Light Matter will be simply referred to as Matter.

The matter which makes up the Earth and all upon it is subject to the interactions of it's matter constituents and the energies which impinge upon it from both itself and space around it. The development of the Earth in the Ages of Geologic and Organic time in these fields of matter and energy constitutes the environment in which man has lived and evolved in like manner. The environment in which man finds themselves upon the Earth is complex in makeup and Nature.

The Biosphere, that portion of the Earth in which living entities may be found, consists of a relatively thin layer upon the surface of the globe which includes the oceans, lakes and rivers, the soil and the atmosphere. This envelope of life is in a state of constant flux which is periodic and exhibits a rhythmic series of changes through the course of time. These changes are due to the influences of geomagnetism, gravitation and the dynamics of the Solar System; the dynamics of the interrelationships of the Sun with the Planets and the Solar System with the Galaxy. Indeed, the Climate, the Day length, the tides, the geomagnetic and gravitational components and the interplanetary magnetic field interactions with the Earth are all due to the influences of the Sun and the Planets of the Solar System. Thus, the Macrocosm Without affects our environment and the Macrocosm Within man simply because all matter is subject to the same influences whether it is organic or inorganic in nature. It is the Macrocosm Within each of us which is a reflection of, has evolved with and coexists within the Macrocosm Without. Thus, the Macrocosm Within allows each of us to function, survive and thrive in our environment. That which does respond to the changes in all the various fields of energy, energy flux and matter of the living area which comprises our habitat, does allow us to live in our environment.

Let us discuss the HOWs and WHATs of relating to the changes in our environment. As far as our knowledge at this time allows. What means do we have for tuning into our environment, the changes to the components of the environment and thus do those things which allows us to be successful? What processes do we possess which allows us to alter our responses to the changes in our environment in order to maximize our abilities to succeed? And indeed, to what changes in our environment are we responding? What aspects of our physical body respond to those changing components of our environment? These are all simple questions to what at first appears to be an overwhelmingly complex matter.

Starting with the more obvious periodic changes in our environment, these are as stated before: 1. The energetic fluctuations of the Sun and those energies which radiate into space such as the sun spots and coronal emissions, 2. The Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) as generated by the Sun and modified by the Planets, 3. The Geomagnetic Field (GMF) of the Earth, 4. The Earth's Magnetosphere in response to the Sun's electromagnetic emissions, 5. The daily Solar fluctuation of insolation due to the Earth's rotation about its axis and the resulting night cooling vs. day heating, 6. The Gravitational Field(GF) of the Earth. For all intents and purposes, our ancestors were correct in believing that the Sun was a God! All the many fluctuations of our environment here on Earth follow and all the physiological processes of all living things follow or even precede those of the Sun, as incredible as it may seem. It is the Sun via the unique circumstances on Earth which makes possible life as we know it. The energy from the Sun is modified by the various members of the Solar System for that portion of the radiated energy which reaches Earth. They also modify the various fields created around the Sun and thus affect the fields of the Earth as well.

There is no doubt that the Planets play a very significant role in mediating the IMF and thus the Earth's magnetosphere and thereby the GMF of the Earth. The evidence is irrefutable and has been shown to be highly correlated statistically. Refer to the above cited works for an in depth description and the supportive scientific literature. Scientifically conducted studies have been carried out over the last three centuries with the 20th as the most active. The Space Age has also played a crucial role since the essential components have been identified and their fluctuations have been measured and analyzed with precision. As usual, man's technological skill lags behind the capacity to keep up with the mind and its quest for knowledge. One of the greatest problems has been the refusal of scientists to take the theoretical ideas seriously since the effects of the variation in the components of the GMF are extremely subtle while the higher strength man-made fields appear to have no effects. No-one knows yet why this is so; but our means of responding, it seems, is tuned to these subtle changes.

What then does the fundamental properties of protoplasm or other cellular constituents possess which allow it to respond to the fluctuation in the GMF and Earth's gravitation? The answer is the genetic material of the Chromosomes of all living things. Again, refer to the above books, especially the one by Dr. Dubrov, for background information to substantiate this claim. The genes as expressed in your parental genetic material in the nucleus of the cell and of the mitochondria, the chemical energy generating complex, in the cytoplasm of the cell respond to changes in the components which make up the environment in which you live. It is the moment of conception in the environment at the time of fertilization which is the crucial and determining factor in the development of your physical beingness. As you grow and develop, the alleles of the genes which you combined from your parents: how they interact together, how they adapt to the changes in the environment surrounding them, how they respond to the energies of other living entities, how they turn on and off when need be; are tuned to the particular set of circumstances at the moment of conception. You begin to try out your newly independent life at birth, responding to the dynamic changes of energy patterns around you. The development of your body, your emotions and your mind are coded within the genetic material and progresses along patterns which are predetermined by that code. Your responses to the energies, matter and living entities around you as you grow are an expression of the development of your system and learned behavior at any point in time. These energies and fluxes are constantly impinging upon the genes and physical structure of your body. The control systems of the body cope with this diverse input by a means which has been labeled as homeostasis but a more appropriate term is rheostasis. This is because the body never actually maintains a set level of anything but oscillates about a relative set point as determined by the CNS.

Rheostasis refers to the ability inherent in the control systems of any living organism to maintain the body in optimum functional capacity within the environment it is found. Thus, rheostasis implies in its definition the ability to shift whatever processes are at work within the body to meet any new and/or periodic changes presented to it. Your genes then, as a result, are constantly in a state of flux, ever turning on and off in order to meet the demands of the moment. The direct result of the "reading" of any gene is a protein which is either a structural component of the cell, an excreted product or an enzyme. Structural components go to make up those which are lost or degraded beyond usefulness. Excreted products include collagen which makes up the extracellular matrix which surrounds each cell and gives our bodies substance. Enzymes are essential since all chemical manipulations by the cells, tissues, organs and organ systems of the body are only possible through their intervention and presence. Enzymes are intimately involved in all aspects of cellular metabolism. Cellular metabolism takes foods and changes them to waste and usable energy.

The waste products of burning organic materials are carbon dioxide and water. So it is with your body. You are able to burn carbon obtained from your food in a controlled manner to yield water and carbon dioxide. Water is an essential and intimate part of your body as it is the solvent and crystalline matrix which allows life to exist. Water has many special properties which enable life to function in the narrow range of temperature from just above freezing to very warm. Water has an even more special property of becoming and maintaining a highly ordered state, i.e., crystalline, while still a fluid. All water in cellular compartments is in this highly ordered state. It is this fluidic crystalline state which accounts for the ability of living organic substance to accumulate the "Elan Vital" or life energy in contradiction to the second law of thermodynamics. It is the molecular structure of water that gives it these unique properties. The two hydrogens are 105 degrees apart from each other and this lends it to being a polarized molecule. As the oxygen is more electronegative than the hydrogens, the shared electrons spend more time around the oxygen and make this pole negative. Thus the two hydrogens tend to be positive. This then is the means by which water becomes crystallized, it assumes an ionic character. Water forms shells of hydration around the various dissolved mineral ions which lends to the crystallized or highly ordered effects.

Thus, we have the general idea that the DNA of an organism, which has evolved within the background of the Solar System, responds to changes in the flux of the environment, codes for various proteins in response to those changes and somehow either directly or indirectly casts a morphogenic field which makes possible the ordered accumulation of matter and thereby makes possible the "life" of your body. The homeostatic control systems keep the body fine tuned to function in the environment it inhabits.

The overall energy control systems of the body work to evenly distribute the subtle energies from the seven Nodes. These loci are not the same as but lie in the same locations as the neuroendocrine and endocrine tissues of the body. Please refer to the following table:

TABLE OF ENERGY LOCI AND
TISSUE CORRESPONDENCE

These loci overlap and produce a field around the body which is then distributed via the meridians of Traditional Chinese Medicine or the nadis of Yoga. It is this subtle energy field system which interacts with the energy/field system of our environment. It is this DNA to Subtle energy field and behavioral expression that Astrology charts. It is the behavior which Neurobiology is attempting to unravel. All three meld into the new discipline of Astrobiology.